The Winchester City Museum on The Square presents the city's long history from the Iron Age through the medieval period and beyond. The Roman collection is particularly strong: Winchester stood on the site of Venta Belgarum, the fifth-largest Roman city in Britain, and the museum holds mosaics, pottery, coins, and domestic objects from the occupation. The Saxon and medieval collections trace the city's transition from Roman regional capital to Anglo-Saxon royal seat to Norman cathedral city.
The museum is free and well-arranged, and it makes a sensible complement to walking the city itself. There is a good exhibit on the development of the High Street and on Winchester's surprising economic role in medieval England — for several centuries it rivalled London in its share of royal tax revenue. A short walk from the cathedral, it is on The Square which is also home to a weekly market.